This invention relates in general to the collection and analysis of data, and more particularly to collecting data to determine a performance measurement that measures an interconnection provided by a local exchange carrier.
A local exchange carrier (xe2x80x9cLECxe2x80x9d) utilizes many different processes in order to serve its customers. For example, one or more processes typically supports customer ordering. Customer ordering includes the initiation of new service or the modification of existing service. Other processes support maintenance and repair and billing.
At one time, a local telephone market was served by a single LEC. However, local telephone markets now are open to competition from competitive local exchange carriers (xe2x80x9cCLECxe2x80x9d). The existing or incumbent LEC (xe2x80x9cILECxe2x80x9d) is required to offer quality interconnection services, resale of capacity at wholesale rates, dialing parity, number portability and unbundled access to its networks to the CLEC""s. Although the ILEC is required to satisfy these requirements, there is no established method for measuring the ILEC""s compliance. For example, the ILEC has a duty not to prohibit, and not to impose unreasonable or discriminatory conditions or limitations on, the resale of its telecommunications services. However, there is no well-defined method or measurement to insure that this duty is met.
The telecommunications industry and the FCC issued a notice of proposed rule making (xe2x80x9cNPRMxe2x80x9d) that set forth some model performance measurements for measuring an ILEC""s compliance. However, no rules have been promulgated. In addition, some states or public service commissions have attempted to define performance measurements, but either the performance measurements have not been enacted or the performance measurements are not well-defined. Therefore, there is a need to define performance measurements that establish that an ILEC has satisfied the requirements to provide equivalent service to a CLEC.
Once the performance measurements have been defined, then the ILEC must also determine how to collect the required data and present it in a useable format. Because the requirements to provide equivalent service to a CLEC cover a wide range of services, the ILEC must collect data from the various processes that it uses. These processes can be located on systems that are physically separate from one another. In addition, the processes can use data formats that are incompatible. In order to determine the performance measurements, the ILEC must identify the data that needs to be collected. Once the data is collected, the system must then normalize the data or transform the data into a common format so that data from multiple systems can be used to determine the performance measurements. Therefore, there is a need for a method of collecting data from a variety of systems or processes that may be incompatible with one another, normalizing the data and using the data to determine performance measurements.
Although it may be possible for the performance measurements to be determined manually, the manual collection and analysis of data greatly limits the number of measurements that can be taken. In addition, if the system is manually intensive, then it is difficult to alter the types of data that are collected or to alter the types of reports or other analysis that is generated from the data. Thus, the method for collecting, normalizing and analyzing the data should be automated. In addition, the method should be flexible so that the types of data collected and the reports generated can be easily modified.
The present invention meets the needs described above by providing a method for defining, analyzing and reporting performance measurements. The performance measurements can be used to establish that an incumbent local exchange carrier (xe2x80x9cILECxe2x80x9d) is providing interconnections to one or more competitive local exchange carriers (xe2x80x9cCLEC""sxe2x80x9d) that are at least equal in quality to the interconnections provided to itself.
Typically, performance measurements are defined to measure such things as timeliness, accuracy and availability. The performance measurements can be used to compare the services provided by the ILEC to the CLEC""s to the services provided by the ILEC to itself. An ILEC utilizes many different processes to serve its customers. Exemplary processes include preordering, ordering, provisioning, collocation, billing, maintenance and repair, emergency 911, operator service/directory assistance and trunk blockage.
A performance measurement is based upon a calculation that uses performance data collected from the processes. When the performance data is collected, the data is identified with one or more dimensions, such as the geography, entity, product and time dimensions. A dimension defines how a performance measurement is reported.
The method for defining, determining and reporting a performance measurement includes the steps of defining the performance measurement and defining the dimensions for the performance measurement. The method also includes defining the performance data needed to determine the performance measurement. In some instances, the performance data needed to determine a performance measurement is used for other purposes and is thus, available from the process. However, in other instances, the performance data is created or collected especially for the performance measurement. For example, a performance measurement based upon timeliness may require that the process use timestamps when such timestamps were not previously used. If timestamps are required, then the process associates a time-stamp with certain events in order to measure an interval or response time. The method also includes defining the performance reports to specify the types of performance measurements and dimensions that are included, as well as the reporting period. Preferably, the definition of the report can be easily modified to adapt to changes in the requirements, processes or user requests.
The performance data needed to determine the performance measurements is obtained and is used to determine the performance measurement. The performance measurement can be determined using a combination of dimensions. For example, a performance measurement can be calculated for a particular CLEC in a particular geographic area for a particular time period. Once the performance measurement is determined it can be included in the performance report.
A performance measurement and analysis platform (xe2x80x9cPMAPxe2x80x9d) system supports the collection of performance data, the determination of the performance measurements and the generation of the performance reports. The PMAP system includes source systems, a staging database, a normalized operational data store, a dimensional data store database and a user interface. A number of source systems provide data to the PMAP system. Typically, the source systems correspond to the processes used by the ILEC.
Once the data is collected from the source systems, the data is loaded into a staging database and the data is filtered and normalized. The normalized operational data store is used to validate the data against business rules and data relationships and transform the data to conform to the PMAP data model. The dimensional data store database includes performance measurements which include aggregate and summary data. The PMAP system provides a variety of reporting capabilities. The reports include aggregate and CLEC-specific reports, state and regional reports, and reports directed to the different processes or subject areas.
The PMAP system also creates raw data files that contain detailed information about specific local service requests, service orders trouble tickets and other items that are typically reported. Typically, the raw data is used to recreate performance reports or to enable a user to create a custom report. A user can download raw data files, import raw data files, import raw data files into a program, such as a spreadsheet program, or manipulate the raw data to create a measurement in any of the performance reports.
These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention may be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the disclosed embodiments and by reference to the appended drawings and claims.